Is versed skincare affordable?

August 14, 2019

We all love a good skincare routine! But let's face it: skincare can be ANNOYING! It is often incredibly expensive and finding good value for money products that are both healthy and actually efficient is downright impossible. That is why we are so excited about the new skincare brandVersed, which launched this Summer May in over 1,000 Target stores (US Only for now).

Helmed by CEOKatherine Power(also the CEO ofWho What Wear) and general manager Melanie Bender, Versed is shaking up the world of skincare by introducing clean products for under $20.

We can hear it from here: "But how can Versed be priced so cheap without sacrificing the effectiveness of its products?" ...well you'll have to Read the interview below to get your answer.

Versed in action

VERSED

SARAH BOYD: How did Versed come about?

KATHERINE POWER, CEO OF VERSED AND WHO WHAT WEAR: Over the last several years, we have spent a lot of time speaking to consumers about fashion and beauty. With the launch of our first brand, Who What Wear, our mission was to make style accessible to women everywhere, which we’ve done, through our international websites and affordable and inclusive apparel collection. I saw the same opportunity to bring clean, affordable skincare to the masses, and after speaking to a handful of our favorite retailers, we realized that the drugstore skincare isle really hasn’t changed in decades.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Many of the women we are speaking to don’t have access to a Sephora in their town, or the budget to shop higher priced brands at department stores. Yet. If they want something clean and effective, they really have no options. We know that over 60% of women are still buying beauty products in drugstores, so we wanted to bring a cool, clean, and high-quality brand to them where they are already shopping.

We enlisted a team of skincare experts and our most engaged community members to co-create the brand with us. Then came Versed, which is a 19-product line of high-performance products that cover every step of a good-skin regimen, from cleansers to treatments and moisturizers.

SB: How has the background in content helped the development of Versed?

KP: We engage with an audience of over 16mm audience members every month, through our websites, newsletters, and social media accounts and groups. We’ve built relationships with these women and are having two-way conversations, in real time. As we develop new brands and products, we really rely on these women to validate our beliefs and help us see new opportunities. In addition, we’re able to bring them along for the ride, and they become our greatest marketers.

Versed packaging

VERSED

SB: How did you decide on the products to include in this initial launch, the packaging, and the marketing of the brand?

MELANIE BENDER, GM OF VERSED: We're proud to be the first community-driven drugstore beauty brand, and everything really starts and ends with our community. We work with 8 different types of proprietary data—from real-time social listening to deep dive focus groups—to help us understand the challenges real people are having with their skin. We then partner with our formulation experts to develop the products we feel are missing from the market.

Then we bring it all back to the community, who tests the products and provide feedback on everything from formula performance to prices. To date, over 9,000 people have actively participated in the development of Versed and its products.

SB: One thing that really impressed me when first reading about Versed is that everything will be sold for under $20, which is so rare in the world of skincare! How were you able to hit that price point without sacrificing the effectiveness of these products?

MB: Two words: formula first. Many beauty brands actually spend more on the packaging than on the goop inside. We choose to heavily invest in our formulas—they're what give you those visible results, after all—and cut out other common cost drivers like custom molds and celebrity endorsements. We see comparable formulas retailing for over $80, but we keep everything in our line under $20 because we're passionate about making results-driven, clean products for all.